Your Business's Domain Matters: How To Make The Right Choice

As entrepreneurs build companies, they find themselves running into the leadership paradox: They need to lead their growing teams, but they often have no idea how to do so. To help them learn from those who've been there, I'm profiling business owners in June who have found ways to grow their ventures successfully and become industry leaders in their own right.

This interview features Gary Millin, the CEO of World Accelerator, a first mover in domain real estate. In 2007, World Accelerator appeared on the domain real estate scene as the first domain accelerator. Over the past 11 years, Millin has aimed to bring venture capital principles to the domain universe and played an integral role in fostering emerging “branded” companies across several markets.

Today, the company gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop a business based on a top domain asset. It offers capital and mentorship, like a typical accelerator. However, it has longer time horizons and is differentiated by its ability to accesshundreds of Tier 1 domains ready for development.

I recently had an opportunity to talk to the CEO about assessing domain value, gaining insight into a domain's growth potential, and building a startup for the long haul.

Serenity Gibbons: Many entrepreneurs looking for domains have no idea what they should be assessing. What do they need to know?

Gary Millin: By itself, a domain’s value can be capped. Even a plot of land on the corner of 5th Avenue and 50th in New York City that’s being used for parking cars has some value. However, with the right team and plan, that same property can be worth so much more, transformed into a major high-rise retail or office destination.

Domains represent “already branded” best available locations. By combining the right location with the optimum development team, the potential is unlimited. Core fuel for businesses can include credibility, name recognition, and user retention. Each of these can benefit from a great, highly recognizable domain name.

Millin: In 2016, Assay Depot recognized it was onto a business that could transform the trillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry. Its impact could be similar to the impact Amazon had on retail. In this case, it could develop a marketplace to engage with scientists. With marketplace dynamics, companies could interact with the right scientist faster, receiving both a lower cost and less friction.

Gibbons: How can a domain impact a fledgling business's credibility and visibility?

Millin: Adding a strong domain can give an early-stage business the credibility to overcome the initial roadblocks that cause so many businesses to falter. I've seen the benefits that come with market leadership; my recommendation is for companies to focus on markets where it’s possible to build a frontrunner position. From there, they should build that platform into the next market opportunity.

This is how Doctor.com has driven its growth on top of the Doctor.com brand. Starting in 2013, I helped co-found Doctor.com, along with a group of passionately driven entrepreneurs led by Andrei Zimiles, CEO. The initial vision was to help doctors better manage their online presence and reputation. After building the leading platform in that area, Doctor.com expanded to help doctors better connect with their patients online. This led Doctor.com to launch the firstuniversal online scheduling platform.

In 2017, with its strong foothold and success in small/medium practices, it was ready to tackle enterprises like hospitals. Facing similar challenges to those experienced by smaller practices, hospitals also must figure out how to achieve more transparency and focus on the patient experience. Eventually, Doctor.com merged with Connect Healthcare. Now, the combined entity under the Doctor.com brand has grown to “power the Digital Patient Journey for practices and hospitals.” Its mission incorporates all the nonclinical aspects of the patient experience that were previously overlooked.

Millin: Customers often recognize the brand prior to launch, just by the nature of one-word domains. Then, the challenge becomes building that into the brand. In 1995, I founded Mail.com with Gerald Gorman. We built and took Mail.com public in 1999, growing it to 20 million email subscribers. After Mail.com, I joined MediaSentry as president, where we developed a business that protected the media industry from piracy; it was sold to SafeNet in 2005. These domain names communicated the brand's approach immediately.

Gibbons: As someone who helps entrepreneurs through your accelerator, what recommendations do you have for those looking to start a business?

Millin: It may seem counterintuitive at first, but more capital isn’t always the right decision. Taking too much capital when you don’t have a clear use for the funds can cause you to invest when you don’t yet know your metrics. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be aggressive. However, do it responsibly and know your numbers, allowing you to decide when to accelerate.

The amount of capital incurred and the pace of growth are strategic decisions. This can be unclear because investors and entrepreneurs might be on different sides of this decision. Investors usually have preferred status, while founders have common. Preferred is an option on the upside with lower downside risk; there is not, therefore, perfect alignment. The ideal amount of capital is the amount that can fund a company to the next break-even point. Then, the company should take more capital when the metrics show it’s possible to accelerate growth.

Second, consider the Weak Link Rule. One of the key roles of leadership is to ensure there are no weak links in departments. Often, tech companies see themselves as either tech- or sales- driven companies. Therefore, they focus all their energy on those areas. It’s fine if one internal team is placed ahead of others for a short period. However, in the end, leadership must know that a company needs all groups for healthy growth. Sales, marketing, finance, client success, tech, and HR all must be considered to see where there are weak links that must be addressed. Develop a culture where groups in the company know that they are dependent on each other for success.

Culture is one of those items that some companies figure they will develop when they’re big enough to need it. Instead, culture should be viewed as important early on. That’s because your early culture sets the foundation for a bigger company. Leaders who know what culture they want and make the effort to be proactive about building it illustrate they’re setting the stage for rapid expansion.

Finally, there’s the rule of obsoletion. In most jobs, the key objective is to make sure you don’t become obsolete or no longer relevant. The one place where you can turn that rule upside down is in a fast-paced, rapid-growth company. The best growth companies have a core group of talent that’s figured this out. They spend time seeing how they can grow their team or build new processes that can accelerate their tasks. These people know there are always things to do, with an ever-growing list of tasks to accomplish. If they can free up time, they can solve new problems. From there, it’s possible to take on more. That cycle can then repeat to further the drivers of the organization’s growth.

Serenity Gibbons is the local lead for NAACP in Northern California with a mission is to ensure economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.

Serenity Gibbons is a former assistant editor at The Wall Street Journal. The local unit lead for the NAACP in Northern California and a consultant helping to build diverse workforces, Serenity enjoys gathering insights from people who are creating better workplaces and maki...